‘South Africa test series as important as WC’ : VVS Laxman

[jhakati]

There is nothing! NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING more important than the WORLD CUP! No one even cares about test matches anyways except for some cricket enthusiasts. Now a days sports are watched and played for "entertainment" and not technical 5 day long competition. Test cricket will eventually die off for being very boring.

either ur trying to be funny or ur truly moronic

[rkt.india]

SA test series is more important than WC for me..we havent won their and it will be a slapstick on the faces of many critics

[Jersey #10]

SA test series is more important than WC for me..we havent won their and it will be a slapstick on the faces of many critics

So the critics are more important than a billion die hard fans? I like the mentality. btw, Who are these critics? How many names you can come up with :hmmm:

[saneindian]

Win both of them. It will be lovely to see the bruning faces of so many of them who will then start with the conspiracy theories of how the BCCI has bought everything!!

[rkt.india]

So the critics are more important than a billion die hard fans? I like the mentality. btw, Who are these critics? How many names you can come up with :hmmm:

critics..you know about whom actually i am talking..world cup is world cup but beating SA at their home will be humongous and very satisfactory to the current players playing their....am not talking about others..but for me SA win will be better than WC win...the real cricket

[Holysmoke]

A win in Test series in SA is miles ahead of a WC win in terms of importance and glory.

Seriously? What world are you living in? You think winning a test series in SA will bring more glory than winning the world cup? You should be a news anchor.

[fineleg]

You think winning a test series in SA will bring more glory than winning the world cup?

Certainly. Its far more intense and difficult to do the Test series win in SA. Only champion team can do that. No flukes can help there. In WC - while a deserving team can win, sometimes even a fluke can happen. Nothing of that sort will help for SA Test series win. If we get that, thats like a pinnacle. Ofcourse WC win is tough one too, but between the two - there is no question which one is more glorious. SA it is.

[Sachin=GOD]

Certainly. Its far more intense and difficult to do the Test series win in SA. Only champion team can do that. No flukes can help there. In WC - while a deserving team can win, sometimes even a fluke can happen. Nothing of that sort will help for SA Test series win. If we get that, thats like a pinnacle. Ofcourse WC win is tough one too, but between the two - there is no question which one is more glorious. SA it is.

please elaborate.

[The Outsider]

Seriously? What world are you living in? You think winning a test series in SA will bring more glory than winning the world cup? You should be a news anchor.

The most popular achievements aren't necessarily the most challenging ones.

[Holysmoke]

The most popular achievements aren't necessarily the most challenging ones.

But it's the popular achievements that bring glory.

[Holysmoke]

Certainly. Its far more intense and difficult to do the Test series win in SA. Only champion team can do that. No flukes can help there. In WC - while a deserving team can win, sometimes even a fluke can happen. Nothing of that sort will help for SA Test series win. If we get that, thats like a pinnacle. Ofcourse WC win is tough one too, but between the two - there is no question which one is more glorious. SA it is.

I'm not even going to bother.. you dont know the meaning of glory. Lets just say.. if we win the SA series, there will be no open top bus parade, but if we win the WC, well there will be much more than that. The entire squad was gifted bungalows at amby valley for just reaching the 03 world cup final. Even if we defeat the SA team by an innings in all the tests, nothing even remotely close is gonna happen. Just coz you dont care about ODI's and all that, doesnt mean the world doesnt care about em. Like it or not, you are a minority... who thinks that a random test series win can be compared to a WC win.

[CSK Fan]

When my manager gives me tasks, he doesn't give me the option of either/or. Indian team better win both SA tour and World cup as befitting a true no 1 or else.......................

[Chalks]

My wishlist for the next 12-13 months: Win Test series in RSA for the first time Win World Cup Win Test series in WI Win Test series in Eng Win Test series in Aus for the first time Not that I'm greedy or anything...

[fineleg]

if we win the SA series, there will be no open top bus parade, but if we win the WC, well there will be much more than that.

Politicians and big shot bums arrange all this parades, and they dont know the meaning of what is good cricket. Actually, I wont be surprised if there is a parade if we win the Test series in SA. But whether or not they have it - anyone who has followed cricket will know which is more glorious. Now, to clarify - its not that I dislike ODI or think WC is poor - I'm just choosing one if I am forced to choose one or the other. Its great if we do well in Tests and ODIs.

[The Outsider]

But it's the popular achievements that bring glory.

No arguments there. My point was specifically to do with the difficulty as a cricketing achievement.

[Jersey #10]

critics..you know about whom actually i am talking..world cup is world cup but beating SA at their home will be humongous and very satisfactory to the current players playing their....am not talking about others..but for me SA win will be better than WC win...the real cricket

No I don't know! Tell me all the "critics" names you can come up with. Your count is zero at the moment. This is the most ridiculous comment I have ever come across. Let's say for example Ian Chapel has been mocking team India for not winning overseas. 90% of India doesn't find out nor cares about what Ian Chapel has to say. Now let's say India wins the SA test series 3-0 and that's equal to a huge slap on Ian Chapel's face. Hurraaayy...India shut Chapel MOFO's mouth! This news will make it to about 1% of the newspapers in India and satisfy about 0.01% of the Indian cricket fans. Test match cricket is not popular in India, it's just a few people here and there who really give a damn about it. On the other side, Let's say India wins the worldcup. I can promise you that 90% of Indians will enjoy the moment and care for it. It will be like a souvenir memory that about 1billion people will keep until they die. I remember growing up in India when I never really watched test cricket because it was really boring. Everyone just said that test matches are for practice before the real cricket (ODI) series starts. It's after I joined ICF I got to know a lot of people who actually "cared" about test cricket. The world cup is absolutely the finest and the most important tournament in cricket world.

[yoda]

Ask the South Africans if they care a damn about winning a test series in India vs winning a WC.

[yoda]

No arguments there. My point was specifically to do with the difficulty as a cricketing achievement.

Why is it more difficult to win the test series given that you have to only overcome one team over a series vs the WC where you have to go through a few knockouts against the world's top teams? Ok, we are playing at home which gives us an advantage, but to win a WC you can't have any letups especially after crossing the round robin stages, where as in a test series, you can have bad sessions/even tests and come back in the series, that is assuming we play to our potential.

[Jersey #10]

Ask the South Africans if they care a damn about winning a test series in India vs winning a WC.

now the players and the officials may think that the test series is worth 250kg of pure gold but the fans? I don't know. I have a few south african friends in university and they don't watch or play cricket anymore because they find it very boring. They don't even mention the test format while talking about cricket. They just say that how can a game be interesting when it lasts for 6-7 hours? and when you mention the 5 day format, they will laugh at you. Not only SA fans but a few NZ kids I have met also feel the same way. A vast majority of my Indian friends don't watch test matches while they enjoy the other two formats very much. In the real world, ODIs and T20s sell while test cricket may be the best format of the game it doesn't quite sell. The best and the most skillful can win a test match is the truth but it has lost it's importance in the outer world.

[The Outsider]

Why is it more difficult to win the test series given that you have to only overcome one team over a series vs the WC where you have to go through a few knockouts against the world's top teams?

1. Winning tests involves inherently less of luck element and more of skill. You can easily check that with the odd ODIs that minnows manage to win, but will not win any tests. 2. Past results indicate winning the World Cup is easier than winning a series in South Africa. 5 different teams have managed to win the World Cup, but only 2 have won a series in South Africa. When you factor in that none of the sub continent team has even drawn a series there, the task becomes even more formidable. 3. At the end of the day this year's WC is about winning 3 straight ODIs - faltering the round robin stage is pretty much impossible. Winning 3 ODIs in a row is not a big deal, yeah the margin of error is smaller because of the knockout nature, but many teams win 3 ODIs in a row against good opposition. How many teams win 2 out of 3 test matches in South Africa? 4. India have a notoriously poor record in South Africa - one test match win in history. Comparatively, our World Cup record is pretty good and our home ODI record is just on a complete different plane.